I'm a geochemist. In the past ten years I've fixed mass spectrometers, blasted sapphires with a laser beam, explored for uranium in a nature reserve, and measured growth patterns in fish ears, and helped design the next generation of the world's most advanced ion probe. My main interest is in-situ mass spectrometry, but I have a soft spot in my heart for thermodynamics, drillers, and cosmochemistry.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Dick Zimmer is socially moderate, fiscally astute, and all kinds of awesome. Let me explain, for those of you who are unfamiliar with central Jersey politics.

Dick Zimmer was the congressional representative for NJ’s 12th district* from 1990 to 1996. In 1996, he ran for the Senate seat vacated by Bill Bradley, who was retiring. Zimmer lost to democratic representative Bob Torricelli, and the congressional seat he vacated to run for senate was take by Mike Pappas.

In 2000, Dick Zimmer challenged Holt for his old seat. In this race of two great candidates, Zimmer ended up losing by less than a thousand votes. At that point, he left politics, and spent his time teaching at Princeton University and working in the private sector as a lawyer.

In the same year, Frank Lautenberg retired from the senate at the ripe old age of 76.

In 2002, Torricelli ran for re-election to the Senate. Six weeks before the election, he was implicated in illegally receiving campaign funds from North Korea. Rather than risk losing the election, the Democratic Party pulled Torricelli’s name off the ballot, and drafted Lautenberg out of retirement to substitute in. Lautenberg won the election. This year, he is running for his second term out of retirement, or his fifth overall.

Having witnessed the rise and fall of the Ming dynasty in his youth, Lautenberg is a fan of big, intrusive government. Twenty-year-olds in Virginia or Montana can thank him for making beer illegal, as he championed the practice of withholding federal funds in order to bribe state legislatures into social engineering.

In contrast, Dick Zimmer has a socially moderate, fiscally conservative record. He supports limited, but effective government. With a 1013 dollar deficit, we need somebody who isn’t a profligate spender. Dick Zimmer won’t use your tax dollars to force people halfway across the country to live a certain way. And he won’t take is marching orders from Harry Reid. He’s a great legislator, and we’d be lucky to get him back in office.

It’s OK if you’re voting D for President and house this year. We all stray from time to time. But an R in the senate column will benefit New Jersey and the nation.

Of course, some of y’all may prefer a technoblogospheric nepotistic argument instead. In which case, I recommend you vote for Carl’s dad.

* In New Jersey, congressional districts are named after Turnpike exits.

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